Help

Newsletter

Derrick Henry commits to Alabama

Yulee running back picks Crimson Tide

Yulee High School running back Derrick Henry eludes Derrick Johnson during the first quarter of the Sept. 21 game against Andrew Jackson High School. Henry had 170 rushing yards in the first quarter of the game and passed Emmitt Smith to become the second leading rusher in Florida high school football history.

YULEE — Five hours before going primetime on ESPNU, Derrick Henry was in front of the people he calls family at Yulee with one very important piece of information.

“Roll Tide.”

Dressed in a black suit and tie, Henry, the Hornets’ record-setting senior running back, verbally committed to Alabama live on ESPNU before a pep rally crowd in the packed school gym Friday afternoon.

It was a long time coming for Henry, a phenom since his freshman season at Yulee, and one-time Georgia commit who reopened his recruiting process last June to become one of the most sought-after prospects in area history.

“It’s a good relief,” said Henry, a 6-foot-3, 241-pound player some recruiting services list as the nation’s top recruit at athlete. “I can finally just focus on spending time on my family, focus on school and my team and just get ready to enroll in January in Tuscaloosa.”

Long rumored to be leaning to the Crimson Tide, Henry (6-3, 241) had whittled his list down to Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee. How he would announce was just about the only question.

Henry walked in to the gym to rumbling applause, sat down at a table in the corner of the gym and spent 10 minutes getting set up with an earpiece and microphone by ESPN for his announcement.

After that, a TV crew counted down the minutes, then seconds, until going live.

On the table in front of Henry, who was flanked by his family, several coaches and his entire team, were Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia hats. When Henry got to the moment, he slowly reached out, picked up the white Crimson Tide hat and pulled it over his braided hair.

As the ESPNU segment ended, Henry capped it with a “Roll Tide.”

The gymnasium went wild.

Henry said that having the announcement, followed by the televised game in Yulee, was a moment that he’ll never forget, notably because the school and community got to share the moment with him.

“It was very important, I felt like it was the right day, all the big hype and all the big news I could do in this day and have it be special,” he said. “So for everybody to see it in my town and in the community [was special], and I was just ready to focus on my season … I was tired of getting those late-night calls asking, ‘Where are you going?’”

Tennessee, the runner-up for Henry’s services, if that’s any consolation, was viewed as the place to go for early playing time. The fact that the Volunteers aren’t nearly as deep at running back as Alabama is didn’t play any factor in Henry’s decision, he said. It was all about comfort with the program.

“The feel I got, you look at them and you like their mentality. You want that mentality,” Henry said of Alabama. “That’s the type of player I am and the type of [team] I want to be around.”

If Henry follows through and signs with Alabama, the competition will be fierce at the position.

Leading rusher Eddie Lacy is a junior, and T.J. Yeldon, Dee Hart, Jalston Fowler and Keyon Drake are underclassmen and in the equation.

And Henry is just one of three high-profile tailbacks in Alabama’s recruiting class, joining Altee Tenpenny (No. 37 in the nation by Rivals) and four-star player Tyren Jones of Marietta, Ga.

"People on the outside looking at the depth chart and all that, it's not that," Yulee coach Bobby Ramsay. "I think the big thing, what sold him was, it's how you fit in with individuals as you visit, how you feel with the people and the place, that's what matters.”

Henry’s commitment gives Alabama its second major recruit from the area this year, and third in the past two seasons. Sandalwood defensive end DeMarcus Walker, a top 50 national player by ESPN, committed to the Crimson Tide on Aug. 24. And First Coast receiver Chris Black is currently a freshman at Alabama, although he’s out with a shoulder injury.